How I Stopped Being a Grinch and Learned To Love Christmas

                                 

Hello there.  I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday.  I know I've been absent from the blog for pretty much the entire month of December.  There is a reason for that.

Read more

Weekend Wrap-Up - New Christmas Trends and Thanksgiving at Home

Hello there my lovelies, and any male-folk that happen to stumble onto to my blog.  Last weekend was great.  Amiright?  Four days off and plentiful good food.  Much to be thankful for.

Read more

Give Thanks - The #1 Thing I'm Most Thankful for This Year

I’m thankful for my sisters.

Five years ago, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, my dad passed away.  It wasn't tragic or even totally unexpected.  Our dad just succumbed to his ongoing health problems and passed due to natural causes.  At age 47.  Leaving three adult children and twin 6 year old girls.

Read more

Cute & Simple DIYs for Friendsgiving

Source - The Sweetest Occasion

Hello friends.  How many of you participate in Friendsgiving, the practice of holding another Thanksgiving meal with just your friends? Sadly, I have never been to a Friendsgiving before but I think this year, I really like to host one at my house.

Read more

Nerd Rant #5 - What is up with this season of Sleepy Hollow?

For those of you that are enjoying Sleepy Hollow, I just want to ask, "what is up with this season?'

Read more

Weekend Wrap-Up - Cake, Dia de los Muertos, and oh yeah - Go Vote!

Hola Amigos! This past weekend was quite busy.

Friday - I raced home to pass out candy at my house, then put together a sorry looking witch costume, looked in the mirror, decided it was too cold outside, and flopped back down on the couch.  

No regrets. 

Saturday - I went to to the Untapped Festival in South Dallas to see Cake headline.  Sweater weather had finally hit Texas, so there was crazy long lines to get in, crazy long lines to sample beer and crazy long lines for food.  What wasn't crowded?  The stage.  

Dallas based, The Polyphonic Spree

ADd+ - Dallas Based Hip Hop Group

ADd+ Frontman Slim Gravy singing on top of the speakers like a bawse

Even the Rahr Brewery Ugly Pug Mascot got into ADd+'s set

Rouge Wave

Leon Bridges

Shovels and Rope

Cake does this thing where they like to give away a small tree to a member of the audience to plant it and send photos of how their progressing.  Cool concept, but John McCrea took a solid ten minutes having people guess what type of tree it was.  Not cool, when you were itching for them to play something from your middle school days.

The worst picture you've ever seen of Cake performing.  I was actually trying to take a video.

Sunday - My friend's birthday happened to coincide with Dia de los Muertos, so we had our faces painted and headed out to the Bishop Arts area for dinner and a game of pool.

Dia de los Muertos altar

Laser focus....

I'm terrible at hand eye coordination when I've have been drinking so...I took pictures.

What fall festivities have ya'll been up too?  Who here had an awesome Halloween?

Oh and..........................................................................................................................

Go Vote Artwork by Lisa Condon

Read more

Birthday Getaway to The Windy City

Hello there.  I'm back up to full speed, after returning from a five day trip to Chicago with my best friend.  We both have our birthdays in October and were looking at some extra vacation time at our respective jobs.  We stayed with her family in Des Plaines, and took some day long trips to Lincoln Park, the Navy Pier and Evanston.

Read more

State Fair of Texas - Return of the Fried Foods

Hello there!  Just before celebrating the one year anniversary of the blog, I went to the annual State Fair of Texas, one of the biggest, loudest, craziest state fairs in the country.  I actually went twice.  Once with my friends around dusk (pictured above) and just this last weekend, during the day with my family.

Read more

SugarSkull Industries Turns One Year!

Source

Hola my friends!  I'm super proud to announce the one year anniversary of the blog!

We made it!!!!! Commence with the champagne bottles popping, cupcake baking, nacho making.....making out? All the ways people like to celebrate.

One year in, and I've learned a few things.

Read more

Season of the Witch - Part Two

Happy Friday!!

Earlier in the week, I went through some of examples of strong, powerful women with magical powers in movies, books, TV and music.  I'm fascinated by the concept of witches as women with powers and abilities to use for good or bad.

Read more

Season of the Witch

I have had a growing fascination with witches, lately.  Witches are almost always powerful women, embodied with supernatural abilities which they can use for good or bad.  The first witch I remember seeing was in the animated Disney movie, The Sword and the Stone.  Madame Mim, a short, tiny ugly old women nearly gets the drop on the wizard Merlin by acting crazy, cunning, and seductive, all in equal turns.

Read more

Let's Decorate for Fall - Easy DIYs

I'm so excited for fall to arrive. Even though I'm on a 3 week restrictive diet (of which I may later blog about), I still can't wait to drown my face in Pumpkin Spice Lattes, fried State Fair festival food, and mugs of Oktoberfest hefeweizen beer.  However, despite my current limitations I can totally decorate for fall without any hesitation.

I don't know if any of you like to scour your local craft store for anything new and interesting like I do, but I have been seeing some cute alternatives to the traditional fall crafts.  Like using raw cotton plants in place of your usual fall foliage, and acorn inspired decor rather than your usual pumpkin theme.   Here are some super easy DIYs to decorate your home with warm, cozy, fall inspired decor.

Acorns

Acorns are the easiest, cheapest way to making your abode look in season.  Just grab a couple from the nearest oak tree, bake to remove any bugs, and adorn.  

I love this idea of removing the fruit, retaining the acorn cap and replacing with colored polymer clay balls.  The neutral of the acorn cap plays beautifully off the super bright clay colors which you can find at your local craft store.

Source

Read more

Head West! Trip to El Paso

Whew!  Last week was a blur.  I spent Labor Day weekend going to El Paso, TX with my parents and sister to attend my grandfather's 80 birthday party.  I stayed a few more days while my family returned to work on Tuesday.  I finally got the chance to see more about my birthplace than in all of my visits before.  I know I look white as a lily, but I'm actually half Mexican through my mother's side.  My Hispanic heritage has taught me a few things; an extremely strong work ethic, the impulse to dance and an innate sense of rhythm, and the importance of family.  We can't always get what we want and we all must suffer from time to time, but family, whether actually related or chosen, makes life worth it. 

Enjoy!

My grandparents, dancing tenderly to the mariachi music.

Read more

11 Things You Did Not Know About Me - Liebster Award Nomination

Happy Friday, everyone! Last weekend, the amazing and lovely Annie of Halfway Here nominated me for a Liebster Award, which helps to spotlight new blogs.  Here is how it works.

Read more

5 Reasons Why I Can't Watch The Mindy Project

Ya heard me.....

When The Mindy Project first appeared, I had resisted.  A female OB-GYN in the Big City didn’t seem all that poised for humor, but that’s okay because that’s not what the show really turned out to be.  Catching episodes on Hulu, I was drawn to the character of Mindy Lahiri because she is pop-cultured obsessed, loved food, and was self-confident about her body in a culture that pressures overweight women into thinking they are the poor souls trying to kill themselves with food.  Sure, I could overlook the fact that she was consistently portrayed as non-intelligent, immature, and boy crazy but that was softened by story-lines in which Mindy would try to help Danny or her friends, support her brother Raj, or act as a mentor.

Aside from Mindy, my other favorite character was Morgan Tookers.  A crazy white guy with a heart of gold.  Morgan was unlike any other character I've ever seen.  Part delusional like Charlie from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and part blue collar worker like Nick from New Girl, Morgan also was ready to help out anyone in moment’s notice.

And then Season Two started……and all my favorite parts went out the window.  Changes were made and the show became unrecognizable to me.

1. The Show Panders to Other Audiences.   

Hey guess what, The Mindy Project?  I love cupcakes, I’m overweight with a sense of humor, and I have secret crushes all the time. This is a show made for me, right?  Wrong. This show needs fresh blood, apparently and instead of rewarding its fan base with better story-lines, we will just throw in actors from other shows.  White, male actors.  As boyfriends for Mindy.  So, your boyfriend will maybe wanna watch?  Because we are not satisfied with just you, the target audience. 

Featuring that white dude from Workaholics.

Featuring more white dudes from Happy Endings and It's Always Sunny.

Absolutely wasting Justified's Timothy Olyphant

2. Morgan Is Now A Creeper.  

Morgan has always been the wild card of the group.  The unstable, man-child with crazy impulses.  At 6’1”, with beady brown eyes, Morgan toed the line between lovably quirky and down right, dangerously, chemically imbalanced.  It was a fine line, for sure.  Now he has toppled into full creeper territory when he shows up naked in Mindy’s bed.  Spurned, he seeks out a lawyer to sue Mindy for sexual harassment.  This is of course played for laughs but this shit isn't funny.  Unstable men are not generally okay after a simple apology.  This is just squirm inducing, much like in Parks and Recreation when we are invited to laugh at Jerry Gergich having a heart attack.  That shit ain’t funny and desensitizes us to other’s suffering.  This is especially bizarre give how Ike Barinholtz was responsible for co-writing some of the best Mindy episodes in Season One.

From this....

To this......

3. Lack of Diversity.  

Yep, despite Mindy and Tamra, this show is still pretty white washed.  Especially in a doctor’s office setting.  I compare it at times to Scrubs with began 14 years ago.  Not much has changed.  Mindy’s boyfriends or love interests are all white and mostly interchangeable except for Casey (Anders Holm), who was allowed to have a personality outside of his work.  Now I realize that most other shows have a maximum of two minority characters as well; 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn 99.  However, this show has the potential to add more diversity, such as new doctor, a new neighbor or a new love interest for Mindy.

Do you see what I see?

Do you?

4. Mindy is Too Selfish. 

Whatever happened to Mindy’s girlfriends?  And patients? And family members?  Or right, they’re gone.  They’re not integral to the only story-line of every episode that matters, which is Mindy getting and keeping a boyfriend.  At this point I don’t even care.  I was more invested in her when she displayed flashes of intelligence (she is a Doctor after all), kindness and determination.  Now Danny and Peter are the most fleshed out characters.  Mindy is just a caricature.

None of these people matter.

5. Story-lines are Consistently Much Weaker.  

In Season One, Mindy’s co-worker Jeremy had to deal with the crushing expectations of his father which in turn would sabotage his relationship, in subsequent seasons he is an over-eater.  His whole character arc is that he is fat.  The End.  In the music festival episode, imaginatively titled “Music Festival”, Danny wants to go see the band The National at a music festival and the whole staff goes along with him.  Danny, a character that was already established as a man with old-school tastes and disdainful of anything youthful, suddenly likes music festivals.  And The National.  For no explained reason at all.  The National is like the opposite of the vibe of this show.  Introspective, soul-searching, a little bit sad…..nothing like The Mindy Project.

What the hell, homies?

They look pleased as punch to be on this show.

What are your thoughts?  I’m harsh because I used to love this show and found out the show did not love me back, like a cheating ex-boyfriend or a back-stabbing friend.

Super Fun Night was so much better.

Two characters closer to my size.

And musical numbers.  

Read more

Summer Daze

Moira gazed at the pool.  Shades of azure mingling and sparkling in the sunlight.  Protected in the shade, the gentle heat prickled her rough,  tree bark-like skin.  She had been severely sun burned just two weeks ago, in a vain and naive attempt to add some color to her normally pale thighs and decolletage.  Which was stupid.  Almost close to thirty, and she would never learn that her Irish skin would only burn.  At best, a few tawny colored, non cancerous (she hoped) freckles would appear on her shoulders and forearms after twenty minutes in the sun. 

Moira sighed.  The water would feel good, help to soothe her dry, crackled, lobster-red skin but she didn't feel like putting a layer of sunscreen on.  Over the layer of intensive relief moisturizer.  Over the two consecutive layers of medicated aloe.  Her skin already a grubby, sticky mess.

And yet she felt different this summer.

It wasn't too hard, hiding her blossoming relationship from her parents.  After her roommates paired up and got engaged in short order (like it was a race), Moira was forced to pack up and move back in with her parents.  They shook their heads, albeit good naturally, at her lack of planning.  Secretly, Moira was hoping Rob would take April's vacant room and move in.  He and Christina seemed to enjoy hanging out with her. Including her in their movie nights and coffee dates.  Sure, she was aware she was a third wheel but Rob seemed to accept her as his as new friend rather than just Christina's roommate.

But women have a way of forsaking everything and everyone, in order to fully devote themselves to their men.  And in return, expecting that man to fulfill their every need.  Protector, provider, confidant, counselor, coach, best friend, lover, personal cheerleader.  A man to listen to their hard days, rub their feet, yet still uncontrollably lust for them like they were still as sexy and mysterious as when they first met.  Yeah, right.

She was eating pickle flavored, kettle cooked potato chips when Christina told her the news.  How she and Rob found an adorable place on the East Side, just for the two of them.  They would move in by the end of the week.  Wedding invite, it was implied, would soon be arriving in the mail any day now.  The chips were Moira's only act of defiance about the whole situation.  Christina's chips, purchased at some specialty store down town, unopened in its hip craft paper packaging.  Moira must have intuited the arrival of bad news.  She would be homeless in less than a week.  " Dang Chris.... Eff You!  Imma eat yo pickle chips too."

Still, without Christina's decision to move out, she would have never met Raj.  Did it still count as a summer romance if all they did was drink coffee and laugh at each other's jokes?  Moira decided it did.  He was only here temporarily, moving back to New York early August, but still he approached her in the library close to her parent's house.  Moira was a failure on most dating sites.  Her name was better suited to a fair skinned, slender woman with dark hair and a penchant for hard-cover books.  Moira was only at the library during her lunch breaks to read magazines for free.  Moira was the name of doctors and scientists, even in the comic books.  Moira, with her honey colored hair and eyes, easily fifty pounds overweight, would watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episodes on her laptop at night in bed.

However, she could hold an engaging conversation, had passionate opinions about working hard and fighting for what was right.  Values passed down from her Irish immigrants grandparents.  She and Raj jokingly discussed the various strategies of surviving the eventual global zombie apocalypse and shared a mutual love of Kurosawa films.  They only went out to dinner once, due to Raj's heavy summer course work load but it was short, sweet and memorable.  Even if it was mostly because the waiter had spilled an entire glass of craft beer down her left shoulder.  Raj insisted on helping.  Taking the white dishrag from the waiter.  Helping to peel off her light sweater, gently toweling off her bare shoulder.  His deep, dark eyes close to her jawline, close to her lips.

He did kiss her, on their last coffee date.  They would text and keep in touch but he warned her that grad school would keep him super busy.  She told him not to worry.  "If it happens, it happens," she said.  The kiss wasn't anything earth shattering.

She refocused her attention on her little niece Nicki (short for Nicholson) splashing around in her parents' pool.  Her frantic dog paddling, despite wearing neon pink floaties and purple flowered swim goggles clamped firmly on her face.  She called out to Moira, with her little sun browned outstretched arms.    Moira smiled and slipped on her dad old Jackson Hole, Wyoming t-shirt, maroon with a miniature skier flying over a snow capped mountain. She waded in slowly, mindful of her ruined skin.  Then feeling weightless, spun Nicki in fanciful circles, both gently floating toward each other in the crystal blue.

She was right, the water felt just fine.

Text and images by Marg B.

Read more

4 Ways To Get into the Summer Camp Trend

So, I know summer is winding down but I've been noticing that the Summer Camp Trend is still going quite strong.  

There’s just something about all those uniforms, badges, and camp insignia that makes adult super nostalgic.  

Now, I’ve never been to summer sleep away camp as a kid but one of my very first jobs in college was as the videographer for a boys’ summer camp off the coast of North Carolina, Camp Seagull.  The different cabin names, mascots and cheers still bring a smile to my face.  The kids were super surprised to find out I was from Texas and never shot a gun before. J

Quick, before the summer ends check out my picks to keep the camp spirit alive and well in your home or apartment.

Read

Lumberjanes

Oh my god, you guys, the best thing to come out of the Summer Camp Trend revival this year is this charming comic books series, Lumberjanes.  Billed as Gravity Falls meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer at a summer camp, this comic is written and drawn by awesome females and featuring 5 female leads that come in every shape and size.  I’m loving the sisterhood and supernatural vibes.  Comic shops around my area can’t keep the issues on their shelves long enough.

Watch

Gravity Falls 

While it doesn’t take place in an actual summer camp, the Disney animated series Gravity Falls is set in a small northwestern town in which twin siblings visit their eccentric granduncle during the summer.  With their Uncle as the owner of the town’s “Mystery Shack”, twins Dipper and Mabel encounter all sorts of mystical creatures, supernatural occurrences and town conspiracies.  Equal parts cute and hella creepy, this is one of the best new animated series.

Yep, that's the gnome puking a rainbow.  If you can't see why it's funny then this is not your show.

Moonrise Kingdom - 

I shouldn’t have to tell you this.  Wes Anderson.  Scout uniforms.  Animal costumes. Summer romance. Perfect soundtrack.  You have to see this.

Shop

Etsy - Arrow Print from MossAndTwigPrints

Etsy - Stars and Dots Banner from Summer Boyfriend

Etsy - Camp Arrowhead Mini Wreath from SugarSkullIndustries

Listen

Camp by Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover

Outside of appearing on the show Community, actor Donald Glover is actually a pretty good and thought provoking rapper with, like, sick abs.  Picture Drake with a sense of humor, and a cuter face.  His first album Camp, while summer camp inspired, actually has some explicit lyrics so just don’t play around the kids. 

Got any summer camp memories you are fond of?  Visions of making s'mores by a campfire?  Tell me!

Read more